Community Outreach
Through the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival's commitment to creating multidisciplinary education and community enrichment opportunities, we continue to develop our tremendously successful year-round education programming through innovative partnerships with other community organizations and the public schools. Integrating art, film and literature with earth sciences and natural history these programs engage over 8,000 students per year. To watch short films from the community outreach programs click here to access the JHWFF YouTube channel.
SUMMERQUEST:
Approximately 125 K-8th grade students attended a four-week remedial summer session. Over 70% of these students are in Elementary grades, more than half are English language learners and 10% are Special Ed students. Experiential project-based learning opportunities are particularly suitable for students who have demonstrated they have difficulty learning in the traditional classroom environment. Throughout the school year, TCSD gets tremendous community support and enrichment in arts, culture, science and technology. However, there is little community assistance offered to the district as it responds to students having the greatest academic needs in the remedial summer session. Using nature to inspire creative discovery, SUMMERQUEST aims to augment this gap with a series of “place-based” projects that bring mathematics and English language skills to life through scientific discovery, digital media, visual and literary arts. Transcending language and literacy barriers, SUMMERQUEST is built on the success and experience of JHWFF’s existing in-school programs and takes students into the field alongside professional biologists and researchers. This pilot project is being initiated in collaboration with Teton County School District, Grand Teton National Park, the National Elk Refuge, Wyoming Game & Fish, Craighead Beringia South and the Recycling Center. Photographs created by students during the summer session were showcased at the Teton County Fair.
NATUREQUEST:
Summit High School, Red Top Meadows, GAP (Girls Actively Participating) and Teton Mentor Project seek meaningful, content-rich activities for the ”at-risk” youth participating in their programs. NATUREQUEST provides seasonal science/nature photography expeditions in partnership with each organization throughout the year. Participants are provided with digital cameras and instruction and are accompanied by professional biologists and photographers. Their images will be showcased in a special exhibit during the 2011 Eco Fair/Earth Day celebration. In addition, pilot NATUREQUEST expeditions will be initiated in collaboration other with organizations serving under-represented populations.
NATURE OF LEARNING:
DigitalKids: Introducing basic photography techniques to 160+ second graders, this immersive year-long program incorporates art with science and nature, and provides equipment and specialized instruction for both students and teachers. Building upon these basic skills, digital media instruction is incorporated in successive grades as a creative tool for learning across subject categories.
Podcasting: Inspired by field expeditions along the Snake River corridor, 120+ fifth graders illustrate their creative writing/poetry with digital photography, video, natural sound effects and music, and develop short-form filmmaking and editing skills to create original video podcasts.
